The system computer has two principal roles as part of the data-acquisition
system:

The system computer, running the ADAM control system, is responsible
for coordinating the entire data acquisition process. The commands for doing
this are listed in Part vi.

The data acquisition system writes the data to files on the system
computer datadisk, ready to be archived.

On completion of an exposure, the data is normally transferred
from the DMS to the system computer, via a
DR-11W interface. The header information associated
with that data will have been collected by the system computer,
either during the exposure, or on completion of the exposure.
Data and headers are then merged into a datafile on the system
computer disk. The datafile is in HDS NDF format, the header
information being stored in the standard FITS extension to this
format. Finally, two copies of the data are written to tape;
a FITS format tape for the La Palma archive, and either a FITS
tape or a VAX backup tape for the observer.

The system computer is networked to various data reduction computers
(currently a VAX 3500 plus several VAXstations).
Data can be
copied across to these machines for immediate processing.